One of the most effective tools in the control of oil spills on bodies of water is the floating boom or barrier. The boom is preferably formed for rapid deployment or may be permanently installed in an area in which the likelihood of oil spills is significant. Most floating booms, whether deployable or permanently installed, are formed from sections of barrier material. It is not uncommon for such a floating boom to have a length of 2,000 to 3,000 feet, and such extreme length usually necessitates the formation of the boom in sections, e.g., 100-foot lengths.
Numerous systems have been devised to releasably connect the ends of sections of floating boom. While such boom end connectors have been effective to varying degrees, they have also been found to have numerous shortcomings. In some instances, the ends of the boom sections are merely bolted together, as is shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,792,589. This approach produces a sturdy connection, but is undesirably time-consuming in coupling and uncoupling the boom sections. In U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,720,062 and 3,818,708, the end connectors take the form of intermeshing loops which can be positioned to cause alignment of an axially extending hole through which a hinge pin or rod is mounted. In addition to the problem of aligning the hole, coupling such booms requires a separate hinge pin or rod, which can become lost or misplaced. More complex approaches are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,757,526 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,756,031, the latter of which employs interfitting hook-like elements and an interlocking pin. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,353,610 and 3,624,701 disclose connectors employing interfitting end pieces, but these systems have the disadvantage of either requiring a separate connector element or having male and female connectors which require reversing of the ends of the boom segment in some instances.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,686,870 and 3,710,577 disclose booms having other forms of boom end connectors similar to the various types above-described. In addition, at least one end connector has been developed which is an extrusion having a C-shaped cross-section. This extrusion is mounted to one boom segment and a second extrusion may be longitudinally inserted into the center of the first extrusion and extends outwardly through the slot-like opening defined by the legs of the C so as to be connected to a second boom segment. While this type of boom end connector has some highly desirable characteristics, it still is basically a male-female connector which can require reversal of one of the boom segments if the connector ends are not of differing gender.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an end connector for a floating boom, barrier or the like which can be rapidly coupled to and uncoupled from a similarly formed end connector to provide an extremely high strength coupling of boom segments.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an end connector for a floating boom or the like which is universal and does not have a male or female coupling end.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide an end connector for a floating boom or the like in which loading of the connector enhances the coupling force.
Still a further object of the present invention is to provide an end connector for a floating boom or the like which can be employed to couple a boom to stationary objects and yet accommodate radical changes in the water level such as occur by reason of tides or the like.
Still a further object of the present invention is to provide an end connector which can be incorporated into a wide variety of temporary and permanent oil pollution control barriers.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an end connector for a floating boom or the like which is easy to manufacture, durable, has a minimum of parts and can be used by relatively unskilled personnel.
The end connector for floating booms or the like of the present invention has other objects and features of advantage which will become apparent from or are set forth in detail in the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment and the accompanying drawing.